Turkey won't be joining EU in 'foreseeable future'

The president of the European Commission said Wednesday he saw no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in “the foreseeable future” but he had a more optimistic message for six Western Balkan nations also seeking membership.

The European Union has become increasingly critical of Turkey’s decades-long membership drive after President Tayyip Erdogan launched a major crackdown on critics — including journalists and academics — after a failed 2016 coup.

“Turkey has been taking giant strides away from the European Union for some time,” Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the executive commission, said in his annual keynote speech to the European Parliament on the state of the bloc.

“Accession candidates must give the rule of law, justice and fundamental rights utmost priority. This rules out EU membership for Turkey for the foreseeable future.”

“Journalists belong in newsrooms not in prisons. They belong where freedom of expression reigns,” Juncker said. “Stop insulting our member states by comparing their leaders to fascists and Nazis.”

Formally ending Turkey’s accession negotiations would require unanimity among EU states, which is lacking, though majority backing is enough to suspend them. EU leaders will discuss Turkey at a summit in Brussels in October, though any formal decision may not come before next spring.

EU expansion not until after 2020

Juncker put a final stamp on the EU’s recently revived engagement in the Balkans, where Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Kosovo all want to join the EU one day.

“If we want more stability in our neighbourhood, then we must maintain a credible enlargement perspective for the Western Balkans,” Juncker said.

The region on the EU’s southeastern edge, still scarred by the wars fought along political, ethnic and religious lines in the 1990s, is important for the bloc for issues from controlling immigration to countering security threats.

Earlier this year, the EU accused Russia of seeking to destabilize the Western Balkans — which Moscow denied — and its concerns have led to a renewed engagement in the region.